Julia Minor wrote:I'm a bit surprised that Rhobair didn't suggest calling on the Siddarmarkians to help with the humanitarian effort.
Maybe "surprised" is the wrong word -- after all, if Charis isn't called in, Merlin has no excuse to get involved. But we know from the last novel that there's a lot of Siddarmarkians who fall halfway between the Church of the Temple and the Church of Charis. Siddarmark has the same "street cred" of having been attacked by the Temple, is closer to Harchong geographically, and unless I hideously misread things may be closer to the Temple theologically.
OTOH, I'm now suspecting that Charis being called in to help is part of what gives Merlin a chance to check out the Temple in that out-of-order snippet.
I would think that Siddermark hasn't yet fully recovered from their ordeal. That suggests they are not as well equipped to send the resources to aid Harchong. Also, how would they send the aid? They would have to rely on the canals and that would displace other mainland cargo. Charis would use their own shipping and would not displace any mainland canal cargos.